Cowboys Break: Passing Out Candy

The Break, live from the s WBC Mortgage studios. At the start, got Nick Eatman here with me, and Amber Garcia is here with me. Dave Hellman is not quite back yet, man, he's still stuck in Minnesota waiting for a flight, hopefully getting back later tonight. But Dave, thank you for joining us from your hotel room. I assume that is. And uh let's talk a little Cowboys football.

Cowboys take their record to UH six and one after defeating the Minnesota Vikings twenty to sixteen on Sunday Night Football. It was a really, really um telling game. I think there were a lot of things you can take from that game. So let's start first, what what do we have to do. Do I give you just a number or you give me a piece of like rubber band to measure my finger right here? Like, how does that work? Are we talking about? We're talking about rings? Is that

what we're talking about. I'm just saying they faced the Cowboys have face. You already got a nice ring. So many challenges, Well I want a different kind of ring. Okay, this is they faced so many challenges and this was just another one that they come out with a win. Yeah, yeah, that's true. All right, Well, here's what we're gonna do. Here's gonna do. We're gonna go around the table, and I want everybody to tell me what their big picture story.

There's hers of this game. Right, we've already gotten yours. We know, super Bowl Bus. That's what Amber's story of the game is. Uh, Nick, what yours? That this is a complete football team. I mean, this is not a great This isn't just a great offensive team. They are they do have a great offense, especially when they got Dak, But this is a great team that can play all kinds of ways. They win with defense. They won they beat the Chargers with defense. They've won this game last

night with defense. Um, I think. I think they're just a complete team now, and they're gonna have some better teams that they're gonna face. But that was just another example they can win in a bunch of different ways. Dave, I'm not sure Dave hears us. But Dave, if you hear us guessing, he doesn't. All right, So we're gonna move on. Let's keep talking. Let's get into some of the some of the points of the game, some of the finer points of the game. Let's talk a little

bit about Cooper rush. Um Cooper rush in this game was twenty four or forty. He had sixty percent completion rate, three hundred and twenty five yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Um. They they also had it. He also had a game winning drive where he was six of nine for seventy five yards five yard touchdown passed Tilmari Cooper to cap that play, I mean to cap that drive to ultimately put the Mississipi in position to win that game. How

do you guys assess Cooper Russians play yesterday? Well, I thought he played. You know who we got, Dave. We hear him breathing, but can't. I thought maybe Dave was gonna jump in. Sorry. Yeah, Um, I thought he played.

He played well. I mean when nobody thought he was gonna win the game, and nobody thought he was gonna go out there and do that in play and enough to win, and he did, and um, you know, he got better and better as the game went on, and you know, I just thought it was it was one of those games where you know, he just I mean,

it reminded me, honestly in a weird way. It reminded me of the Jason Garrett game way back then, when when he just came off the bench and just said, all right, second half, we're going to just be a different team, different quarterback. He really did a great job. You know, I've had my doubts, of course. I started off with Cooper Rush when he first got here, being on the band whileing, oh let's go Cooper Rush, but then fell off and we talked about it last week

on Friday, how we felt on this situation. But with Cooper Rush, you know, one of the things that I really really liked is the fact that despite the mistakes that he was making, he kept going and he didn't like start how do you say that startle him or like threw him up to startle him or threw him off or anything. He was focused, just kept competing, went out there and kept the poise that you looked for in a quarterback, especially a backup quarterback. So that was

very impressive to me. Just hide the mistakes. How much did that match up with what you expected to see? Because I do think sometimes in the course of watching the game, we get we get an impression from what we're watching, and I think it is influenced by the outcome.

If they would have lost this game, there were plenty of moments in that game where we would have looked back and say, man, Cooper didn't do this right, He didn't do this right, he missed this year he should had it or maybe did have an interception here, Like, well, how did this match up with what you expected from him going into this game? Well, I mean I also expected him to have his left tackle, you know, and Tyron Smith didn't play and then that changed a lot.

I mean, the pressure there on that side of the field, it was starting to to the pocket was collapsing a lot more when that happened. So, um, you know, but I think he played better than I thought he would play because they're six and one man and he he had some mistakes, but he also made some great throw I mean he throw to Cedric Wilson for a touchdown was perfect throw. Yeah, um, second best throw of the

game outside throw the CD on the run. Yeah, but yeah, he I thought he he really did a great job there of just putting him in position, and two minutes to go, they get the ball down and they go right down the field and score. Yeah. Well, to your point, if we look at it the other way, I'm a pretty drastic person when it comes to football, So I would have been in here and being like, what are

we doing? What are we what are they doing? They knew something could happen with Dak coming off an injury from last year, so they decided to really just go with Cooper Rush as the backup. So I'm very like an extreme extremist. How do you say extreme extremist, extreme mix? Yeah, something like that. Weird yea. When it comes to football, football, football, I'm just Sings is the biggest extreme. Oh he's all over all of all time. I call him that. I don't even know if that's a real word, but it's

a word. It's just not using football gross is the most He's the biggest extremist ever. Everything he does extreme beard, Yeah, he do anything, work out, party, it's not gonna work out. He's about to eat like everything. Ye have a good right, He's like I'm gonna go people, or I'm gonna run sixteen miles. All right, So how much did this performance

change your level of confidence in him? Because I think last week, as we talked about it, we all thought, man, I just don't know, cowboys maybe should have done a little more in the off season to prepare for this and shouldn't have put themselves in this situation. Do you feel differently about that today? Um? Yeah, yeah. And also the nature of the league too. What happened yesterday around

the league. You know, a lot of teams did that, and guys that couldn't beat out Cooper Rush three years ago, we're winning games with you know yesterday. Yeah, I mean that's incredible. But yeah, I mean I have a different opinion about it. I mean I thought I thought going into last week last night like all right, um, Dak doesn't play this game, probably play next week. And now

it's like we'll save that time. Well, we'll save that topic because I do and I'm just doing has changed my opinion because of that, because of what I saw going in to beat Minnesota like that, I do think they can beat Denver and Atlanta. They can also lose to them, but I do think they can beat them well, and not just what Cooper rush. Hey, can y'all hear me now? Yeah? Yeah, coming in hot, just get in there. Oh hey guy, Yeah, sorry, I was trying to wait

for a pause in the conversation. Hi, hey man. You know it was funny because we went to you earlier and you just kind of sat there and looked at the screen with that kind of weird look on your face and just kind of gave a big side like I wish we'd get the show started at some point. So let's go back to you and tell us, Yeah,

what's your big picture come take away from this game? Man? Well, my big picture is, you guys know me pretty well, the fact that I sat here for five minutes and didn't say a curse word on a live mike, because it's incredible. I'm gonna pat myself on the back for that. Um wow, man, I don't. I mean, my big picture is that this is just one of the more impressive, certainly one of the more impressive wins of Mike McCarthy's

short tenure here. Um, there were a couple of moments like this last year, but you kind of felt like the season was already lost with not knowing that Dak wasn't coming back. That's the difference, right is you just got to hold the line for a little while, as

opposed to knowing he's not coming back. And to come up here in place such a complete and complimentary football game and not even like not even the cleanest game, like they were minus two and turnover differential and still found a way to get it done against a not a great team but certainly not a terrible teams. It's pretty mind blowing, honestly, Yeah, it was. It was funny. I was as I was toward the end of the game and this was the last Cowboys possession and then

obviously the last Minnesota possession. It was funny because I was sitting there, Nick, you've already left the press box heading down to the field. I kept can go over at Dave and Rob and they both had these looks on their face like wow, Wow, they did that, Okay, and then next player do something, Wow, Wow, they did that, and I think we were all kind of thinking the

same thing, which was, man, this team is different. Like this team, they're gonna find a way to win this game, and then they're gonna find a way to stop them to win the game. And that's what that's to me, what I've really seen from this team. That's the big picture I take away from this game. We got to see the offense in the situation where they needed to score to win, they got it. Defense, you need to stop to win, they got it. That's the kind of

thing that that's about championship football. That's how you win championships in this league. Yeah, because fifty one seconds to go, you know, most people would probably want to just want to see a run there, cut some time off. You know, I thought they might do that on first and Golf in the five, but you know now they decided to throw it, and you know that's the first thing is all right, is there any flags? That's what I looked at the way, Okay, touchdown Cooper's there any flags though?

And then now that's a lot of time. It's a lot of time. They don't have any timeouts. But they stopped him. You know, fifty one seconds is a lot of time, but they couldn't even get past the midfield. I don't believe. No, I don't think so. If it was, it was right there, But I mean in the confidence that that Rush showed in Cooper to throw the ball to him, like in that kind of situation. He was like, he saw he was manned up out there. He's like, of course I'm throwing it up. I'm giving him a shot.

And that's what Almar talked about after the game. He's like, that's what we love about Cooper Rush is he's gonna take that shot. He's gonna give you a chance to make that kind of play. And he sure did, and it worked out for him, got him to touchdown, and then the defense held for those that final minute of the game. All Right, we're gonna take our first break when we come back. I need to talk about Kella Moore. He called what I thought was another really, really great game.

It's very clear what their their game plan was coming in and showed us some wrinkles that we hadn't seen before. We'll talk about all that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Before there was a draft you get sized up a cowboy by three simple factors, the crease in his hat, the bend of his brim, and his unbending attitude a man. Stetson didn't just protect him from what life through at him. It projected a rugged, unstoppable spirit. Stetson hats are still American,

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Back to the break. Getting a Dallas Cowboys United Membership presented by Globe Life. It's the ultimate fan experience for the ultimate Cowboys fan membership. Start at just twenty dollars. You can visit Dallas coweys dot com slash United to get yours today. Welcome back. It is the second segment of the Break Life. In the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star, we're talking about the Cowboys big win. They win twenty sixteen over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday

Night Football. We talked about Cooper Rush. Let's talk about Kellen Moore. It was, in my opinion, very clear that their game plan going into the game was they were going to try to run the ball. They were gonna try to play bullyball. Basically, they showed us the whole package, which was brand new for us. Wishbone like I hadn't seen Cowboys and a Wishbone maybe ever in the time I've been covering the team. My question for you guys is,

what's wrong all you did? Johnny Wishbone? Sorry, Surprised that they couldn't get more from the run game even when they were in some of those bigger packages, or do you think it was just one of those things where in Minnesota said we're gonna sell out and we're gonna stop the run. They did, They did sell out and stop the run and I was waiting for you Minnesota. That's finally changed that. But but they never did that. They were not going to let that happen. And you know,

with when you have Dak it's different. But with Cooper Russ, I mean, that's that's what you have to do. You have to say, this guy's gonna have to be this. And in the first half he had three points and they said, all right, you know, and I think that's one of the reasons why they were so conservative there at the end of the first half, and the fans were booing all that. They probably were like, we're not

taking any chances here, we don't really need to. But just a minute into it, when Cedric Wilson went over the top of him, that changed everything. Really. That showed, hey, this guy can hurt you if you if you, if you're gonna play that kind of defense, I think that's some of us. Yeah, I mean, I absolutely go ahead, Dave. Oh sorry, ag go ahead, Oh you go ahead. You're on you're actually on a microphone. Okay, damn it, I

didn't miss this. I didn't miss this. Yeah. Um no, I mean in the NFL, if if the opponent is not afraid of your quarterback, it's hard to run the ball. I fully expected that to happen. Minnesota's got talent on that defense, if anything, and Nick Nick nailed it. Because I was sitting there in the first half, I was tweeting about this. It was terrifying. Every time Cooper threw over the middle, he was thrown behind guys he got he nearly got picked off the second time. He did

get picked off. The first time, it was like they don't respect him to do anything other than maybe curls and the occasional deep shot outside the numbers. But you make your money over the middle of the field. And it didn't. It didn't look like Cooper rush was up

to it. And then on the first possession of the second half, I think he flipped everything on its head because not only do you hit the big play for the touchdown, but now the Vikings have to keep that in the back of their mind, like, Okay, we were going to get hurt if we were playing the way that we keep playing as aggressively downhill. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the passing game kind of

opened up a lot after that play happened. One thing that I wanted to add to the whole conversation is when talking about Kellen Moore and how he impressive the work that he's doing has been. It's like in the past we've seen occasions where a player goes out on offense and then all of a sudden, the whole thing just kind of falls apart and you cannot make it work. You cannot move the chains and keep going and make it happen. But yet you have so many missing pieces.

Then you get your quarterback unable to play, and then you plug in Cooper Rush, and the way that Kellen Moore was able to adjust and cater certain place to Cooper Rush, to me is absolutely impressive. It's also impressive the fact that you hear a lot of those players the way they speak about Cooper Rush a backup quarterback and just having their full on support and being confident in him obviously helps with the whole energy and being

on the field, in the chemistry and everything. But just everything that Kellen Moore has done so far, I am to be fair like I've never really knew he had that much in him, and I'm absolutely excited and looking forward to seeing more, hopefully beyond this year. You know, as you were just talking, I just thought to myself, they actually last night were exactly where they loved were last year. They didn't have either one of their tackles

and didn't have their quarterback. And I thought last year, I was like, you take those three guys out of this team, and there's no way they're going to be able to win because the offense is what they do best, and without those three players, there's no way your offense can really function. You won't be able to run the ball, you won't have time to be able to throw the ball, you don't have a trigger man a quarterback that can actually get it out quickly. So there's no way to

win last night. The fact that they were able to get this to work, I think speaks a ton about Kellen Moore and what he was able to do and how he called this game. I think it speaks just as much about the defense, because that's really the big difference is that this defense came to play last night and they played in a way that we haven't really seen defense in Dallas play in quite something now. Their backs were against the wall several times there, they came back,

they led, they held them to field goals. I mean, just if you I would have loved if somebody would have come by after that first drive where it was just boom boom, boom boom boom, touchdown, fireworks, horn, cannons, all that, right, and then you're just like, man, that's a snow snow inside the stadium. Yeah, and then and then it's a touchdown. And then you look around everybody and be like that, that's a good touchdown. Too bad they won't score another one again. The rest of the game.

You're like, okay, because justin Jefferson's running down the sideline on the next drive that easily could have been a touchdown. But the fact that they buckled in like that, I'll say this, I don't think Randy Gregory, I don't think de Marcus Lawrence has ever played in a stretch like this, Like Randy is playing nothing knock against DeMarcus. He's been great, He's been a pro bowler. I think this is the best five games of a defensive end that we've seen

since de Marcus where was here? That's I mean, And and I can't wait for Tank to come back. And you and I talked about this last night during the game. Fact that like, this is the beautiful thing about Randy Gregory is he doesn't just get you sacks. He gets you pressure in sacks in moments when you need it most, in parts of games where you absolutely gotta make stop.

He's that guy that's creating disruption. He's that guy that's making plays Like that's the part that's what you really need from a due because we've all seen defensive ends who can get that random sack in a game in the first quarter on second down that leads to, you know, a punt, But in the game when it's crunch time you absolutely need it, they're nowhere to be found. That's

the beauty of what Randy Gregory gives this team. I'm glad you brought up the twenty yard I'm glad I'm glad you brought up the first possession, Nick, because I was looking at it right before I hopped on. They had two plays of twenty plus on the opening possession on top of a defensive pass interference that probably would have gone that long as well, and they had one more. They had one more of the rest of the way. Wow. Wow,

I mean, that's that's incredible. We talk about explosives and how the Cowboys have struggled with them, and they you know, Jefferson had an eighteen yard gain and Feeland had a nineteen yard game. But when you talk about like truly explosive plays, I think the only other time they crossed the twenty yard threshold the rest of the night was the fourth and one bootleg to Feeling from Kirk Cousins.

So to buckle down that way with how much they've struggled with it this season, I mean, the Vikings basically didn't do anything after that first possession, not anything worth getting excited about, clearly, And that's that's incredible to me because it's been a consistent problem for this defense all year. What has been, in my opinion, or what was in my opinion the best performance by defensive player last night was Michael Parsons. He had ten tackles, four tackles for

a loss one quarterback hit. First rookie with ten tackles and four tackles for a loss in a single game. My question, you got ever, in history of the National Football League, that is the first time a rookie has ever done that. I can't believe that, But I mean, because that's those numbers aren't like astronomical. Well, four tackles for a loss is a big number like that usually doesn't happen in a game. That's a lot, I know,

but for that's a that's insane. It is. And not just and if you said not not just rookies, maybe you probably got some more guys in there. But for a rookie, first of all, for rookie to be playing that much, well, be given that many opportunities. That's where he comes and he's think about what a tackle for loss really means, Well, like, what what it's the number one thing you've got to do for a tackle for loss. You've got to have awareness, you've got to be able

to sniff it out and go find the play. And to be a rookie and do that and do a four four time in one game, all right. Yeah, I was gonna say, not just that, but also look at all the places he was playing at, Like the fact it's not just his focus on one spot and that's it. He's being moved around, and the fact that he's being uh, he's been able to contribute in all of those different places. I mean, you have that that takes skill. I mean,

that's extremely impressive. The fact is they're not lying. That's what we're say. So that's what we're talking about when we say I prefer him for to be versatile, Like it's fun to watch him rush the pats or but he has so many ways to impact the game back there.

I mean, if that ball, I don't remember if it was the second or third quarter, but like he had a shot at an interception when a pass goot batted in the air, So I mean, you come a few inches away from that, you're around the ball, you're able to do that. I would like to see I think he played sixty three snaps last night, or maybe the sixty four he played sixty four. I'd like to see a couple of blitzes and maybe a few more pressures. But I yeah, I absolutely love the variety of stuff

that he's doing. And you can just see the impact that he has when you're around the football. That's going to turn into even bigger plays the more often you're able to do it. Yeah, you know, and Dave, I don't even know if I necessarily want to see him doing that more. I love just the mix right now because what he's doing, they're basically just using him as a player that's sniffing out wherever the ball's going and go get to it. And that's what I love about.

There are plays when he rushed last night. There plays he rushed up the middle of that final play of the game. He was come up the middle. He was the one that forced to play the ball to have to come out quick, which basically killed the play in their ability to try to get the ball down field. So he had some opportunities last night, and I just love like, let him just go find out where you want to line him up and say, go find the

ball and get to it. And he's so instinctive, as you said, Nick, he'll find the ball even behind the line of scrimmage and make those plays that make a difference that put him in second and twelve or third and twelve and lead to to punch in a lot of instances. Let me also throw out one thing about stats, because Parsons has great stats. He was all over the place, eleven tackles, like you said, for for loss. Here's another guy one tackle. One quarterback hit bottom of the defensive chart,

and I thought he bawled out Terrell bash him. He was amazing. I don't know what the stats would lie because if you watch the game and saw Bash, him was everywhere. I thought, I thought he, I mean, Kirk Cousins knows exactly what ninety three was doing in that game. Him and Gregory were meeting at the quarterback, especially on that final drive. Yep, the speaking of Gregory two and that was that's a great thing to point out. But speaking of Gregory, he had also just one tackle, but

he also had a sack. He also had three quarterback hits. He had a forced fumble. He was again another player that was just everywhere. Two penalties he also and that's where I was going. He had the two penalties and they were in a part of the game where, man it could have really hurt them. And I was interested after the game when he was talking about it, and he was talking about, you know, I played better when I'm when I'm upset, but I gotta be better at

kind of managing that. My question for you guys is, if you look at this defense, they are definitely a defensive attitude like they I've heard it said so many times by offensive players and by some other defensive players. They got a bunch of dogs on that side of the of the ball. Do you are you okay with some of the penalties that they get because they are so aggressive, because last night that drive almost melted down on them because they were a little overly aggressive. But

they also still held to a field goal. And I kind of like the aggression that they have. What do you guys think about that? How you manage that between being aggressive and then sometimes stepping over that line because you're playing so close to that line. As far as how aggressive you are, Dave, I think how we're back to calling names, Yeah, that's probably for the best. No,

I think those are two different things. Like I want you to be aggressive, I don't want you to lose that, Like the flag on Terrell Basham is and I hate why, you know, I hate whining about flags, but that was such bs like that. I mean, when people talk about the cissification of the sport, that's what they're talking about. I mean, the guy had committed to trying to get to cousins before the ball was thrown, and you're flagging him for making a football play after the fact. That's

just crap. So do that every time, Terrell basham And, I'll never get mad at you for getting flagged. The flag on Randy was way more avoidable. Which one you can't don't. You gotta be able. The one at the side line down in the red zone where he just blasted that guy. That is a frustration flag. That is a I'm pissed off, and I just I want to hit something more so than you know, playing through the whistle in my opinion, and I know it's a really fast game, but I think pro football players can draw

that line, so I view it a little. I view those as separate things, like, yes, be aggressive, don't change what you do in some instances, but some of those you just gotta be a little more disciplined. You know, it's on that play, I agree it was a frustration play. You could tell. It's a second one in about two minutes, so it's first and goal after that penalty, it's first and goal at the four yard line. He lines up at the tackle position. You know he's fuming. He just

darts through the line. He doesn't hit another play where he's not on the statuet. He goes in there and totally changes the whole run. Delvin Cook has to spin and Donovan Wilson and Justin Hamilton come and clean it up. But Randy blew it up and even said and then inter he said, I've played better when I'm pissed off, and he was pissed off. And so then the next play was another three yard loss, and Lvee almost got

a penalty for hitting a guy out of bounds. And so but that right there, they kind of they just buckled down, you know, And a lot of it was Gregory just getting mad. But I mean, if he's gonna play that way, kind of a psycho rusher off the edge, I can't I just can't wait to see what happens when de Law comes back, those two together and then Parsons playing linebacker. Yeah. But but but go back to the penalties. I mean, if I can offer, oh yeah, good, Sorry,

no go ahead, Nick, I'm done. I don't remember I was going no, Dave, go ahead. Sorry man. Well, I mean, I'm with you. I'm really excited to see these guys. But I just I wanted to offer an anecdote because we talk about this all the time with um, you know, the endless storylines that you never know about going into a game, and like you never fully know what's going on with anyone football player. So I went down to the hotel fitness center yesterday morning just to like get

on the elliptical do something for a half hour. And Randy and Basham were in my elevator and Randy's basically just like asleep, standing up, like he's like leaning against the wall, just like tired. And we were kind of chatting. He was like, I feel terrible, dude, Like I don't know if it's something I ate or what, but like my stomach is absolutely killing me and I'm sitting here like in my head, I'm like, that is not what I'm trying to hear from the guy who needs to

slow down Kirk Cousins tonight, Like that's terrifying. So like all day I was like, oh, man, like I hope, I hope Randy's okay. Like that's not going to be good news if he can't go. And of course he goes and has this killer game. And that's the beauty of a National Football League player, right, they go through a lot of stuff and still managed to when game

time comes. I mean, you think about that. Think about Amari Cooper, Like he left the game with a hamstring injury and he told he told basically what he said, he told the trainer was, Yeah, just give me to point where I can kind of run a little bit and I'll take it from there. And then he goes and has this amazing final drive to get them in position and then get the wind touchdown. Like these guys are amazing freaking superman when it comes to playing through injuries.

All Right, we're gonna take our final break when we come back. We're gonna talk a little bit about special teams. There were some issues last night and we got to talk about a little bit. And then I want to get to a point where I want to get you guys to give me your game ball. We'll take give each each of you guys one pick to give a game ball to do that before we end the show. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hi, I'm Clint

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at AT and T Stadium spaces Limited. It's a register to day at Das Cowys dot com slash Academy. Welcome Back. Final segment of the Break Life Nest of UBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Let's talk some special teams. Last night, Zerline has another miss This simmy misses from forty three yards. Not a gimme, but a kick you want your kicker to be able to make. I went back and looked at his season stats. Right now, he is twenty third in the league in field goal percentage at seventy eight percent.

I mean, he also has more attempts than most kickers. He's third in the league and attempts with eighteen, so that obviously would probably driven drive up the number of misses he may have as well. But when you break it down, he's nine of ten on thirty to thirty nine yard field goals. That's pretty good. He's three or four and forty to forty nine and that's pretty good. He's one of three on fifty plus, not a gimme, so that's okay. Here's the interesting party's twenty one of

twenty three on extra points. What is your confidence level at this point with Zerline? Do you think they have to start changing how they play the game based on their confidence in him, or do you still think it's just a situation where when you're in field goal range you just still kick the ball. You don't think about going forward on fourth down unless it's just a situation where you would normally go forward on fourth down. I think, I think you. I don't if unless his confidence changes,

then I wouldn't change my confidence in him. Um. And I think that he's proven that when he misses Tampa Bay game, uh, maybe the Chargers game, um, you know, or maybe not that game. But when he misses some kicks, um, like he did last time, he still comes back and makes them. So you know, as long as they don't really like one kick doesn't really affect the other and the other, then you could tell kickers having some problems like mentally. But if his confidence doesn't really waiver, I

I stick with it, yam. Yeah, it's a it's a tough one because there's so much you can really do at this point. It's not like, who are you gonna get that's a whole lot better than him, So you kind of have to just suck it through the season and keep playing him. Um. Just like Nick said, a lot about confidence, but also how do you not put

him in a situation like that? Just to me, the other the other thing that you can possibly do is trying to score a touch them every time, and then we talk about the red zone issues that the Cowboys are having. So you just got to start figuring out the things that you can actually fix rather than thinking, Okay, this is an is to fix with Greg, which is

it's not you can't you know. I don't know if I'm sounding a little bit confusing, But and then at the same time, I would start getting really really upset once he starts costing the Cowboys more than one game and losing games for the Cowboys. So at this point, I'm like, not confident, not happy, but it's kind of working. We're getting wins and all that, but once the game comes down to a loss because of him, then then

we got a problem. Dave. The thing that makes me feel okay about Greg is, like Nick said, he usually bounces back. I mean, he redeemed himself and he hit the game winner in LA. When he's had missus, he usually responds. His miss last night was his first kick of the night, and he made two more after that and made his extra points as well, So I mean,

bad hiccup. And yeah, I mean forty three is right in the range where you really want your kicker to be able to make that, but for him to bounce back and hit everything else after that, definitely not like a ten out of ten. But I feel confident enough that he's just as good or better as whatever's available to you, and it just kind of is what it is. I mean, if we want to revisit this in the off season with trying to upgrade the position, that's fine.

But I feel good enough about him and I appreciate his resiliency that when things do go bad, he bounces back. And like I said, I mean, unless you got Justin Tucker, then I think everybody's had a kicker who's had at least a couple of miscues this season, and so I think it's more about how you respond than whether or not you mess up. To be clear, I wasn't saying that they have recourse as far as getting another kicker. My question was if it were you, would it change

how you're calling the game? Would you be inclined in some situations and not trust them as much as they hit? Coach seems to trust him because we've heard it over and over while we were in field goal range, like would you be feeling like that or would you be thinking, hey, it's for it down. I don't know about my kicking situation, so let's go for it on fourth. Does that factor in at this point based upon your level of confidence

with him? Yeah, you know what you once they crossed midfield? Yeah, good, want to go for it anyway? So right, you would do anything for it when they crossed midfield. I mean yeah, so no, And it doesn't change the way I do it. I like, hopefully you're only kicking when it's a very obvious situation. I mean, if it's fourth and three or less, this offense should be going for it more often than not. Anyway, So no, it doesn't. I don't think it really affects

my opinion. I think it did affect their opinion, maybe just just in that last drive of the game, and you think about it. I mean, after they're sitting there on you know, a third and an eleven at the twenty yard line, you know, so that's that's gonna be a thirty seven yard field goal. Do you try to get this first down? And they didn't. They didn't really try to get the first down. They tried to get a little bit more yards underneath to zeke and get

it pretty close. Now, Zeke, you know, he didn't have a great game really, uh stat wise, but he made in my opinion, to play the game. And but but I think that might have been a result of, hey, let's let's not be too aggressive here and make a mistake, and let's also give ourselves a better field goal opportunity. And it just turned into a touchdown. But that's exact,

that's the exact thing. Like they were, in my opinion in that instance, they were actually playing, yeah, to get a field goal, right, they were playing to get a field goal, and Zeke just beasted on him and got him in a situation where they didn't have to do that. But but really they were playing for field goal opinion.

There The only the tricky part, when you really started thinking about it, is how aggressive they play sometimes in some of the decision makings that they do, and in those calls that sometimes doesn't go their way, and then some other times they's like, well, wow, okay, good good call. But it's in those instances that I'm like kind of hesitant because you really don't know which way it's gonna go. But at the end of the day, I rather play aggressive, go for it, try it, and right now. It's been

working for them. That's all I'm gonna say. I'm just excited that it's been working for them. One more thing about Zerline is that, you know, you gotta remember everything that a player does at his position, and obviously the biggest one is the is the field goals. I mean, but I can promise you not everybody in the league is kicking a touchback every single time or just about. He leads the league in touchbacks. Yes, do they score a lot, yes, but he has also got a lot

of touchbacks, and that isn't that is important. It's gonna be really important in some of these colder games where when it's harder to do that, because then that's when you can bust a fifty yard return or even worse than that. So he provides something that you think, oh, this, get this guy off the street, of this guy's better or whatever he might kick it off to, you know, like a Dan Bailey for instance, somebody like that. Dan Bailey had trouble with some of his kickoffs and stuff.

So you gotta remember everything that a kicker does. Real quick. Let's get game balls. Give me a game ball player of the game. If you had to pick one person. If you were given a game ball, who would it be? Dave? Let's start with you. I've been thinking about this a lot, and maybe it's a cop out because the quarterback always gets the credit, but I just I want to this is really cool. In my opinion, Micah Parsons was amazing. He's gonna play a lot more football and have a

lot more game balls. Mark Cooper, you make twenty million dollars a year. You played great, That's what you're supposed to do. Cooper Rush, I don't think it's a stretch. I don't think it's a stretch to say that his life changed last night. You think like he brought it up at the postgame podium. He was sitting on his couch. Last year, the Giants cut him at the end of training camp. Nobody wanted him until Andy Dalton got COVID and concussed, and obviously Dak was hurt. The Cowboys needed him.

He hung around. Yeah, he won the backup job, but what's he ever gonna do anything now? He has this moment like you can never take this away from him and his family, first of all, but on top of that, it gives the Cowboys confidence it's a game full of tape for other teams. Like, he's probably going to extend

his NFL career because of this game. I mean, when it comes time for him to sign a new contract, he's got a lot more reasons to stay employed than he used to and maybe he goes on to play three, four, or five or maybe even more years in the NFL off the strength of this. I just I think that's amazing. I mean, his NFL career could have come to an end last year if not for some unfortunate circumstances, and now he has started and won an NFL game. I just think it's incredible. Yeah, I think we call it

just like I can said about Jason Garrett. You know, the Jason Garrett game. If if Cooper Rush doesn't play a whole lot more, and I don't know if anybody really wants him to around here, this s will be the Cooper Rush game. And that's that's that's amazing. So uh yeah, I mean I think that's a good one. I mean, that's that's good too. But let's pass it around a little bit. I mean I thought, um, you know,

I thought Amari Cooper was was pretty awesome too. I mean, he was just just going through what he was dealing with and and then at the end, I mean that concentration on that catch in the fourth quarter of the ball was bouncing around and tipped drill and he caught it, and just that whole drive was really Cooper to Cooper, and so I thought that that was amazing, and you know, he did it. He's playing through a lot of pain and he is playing very well. I'm going through in

my head with different guys. But it's hard to beg because everybody else you kind of could say, Okay, yeah, I can see him doing that. Okay, yeah, of course, but then Cooper Rush was the guy that you could not I'm not gonna say everybody, but most people could not see him doing what he did yesterday and coming off with a win like that. So it has to be him with all the criticism that he got this past week and he's been getting for a while. I mean,

he's so deserving of this. And I was so happy for him and his family just watching his family also watching the game and seeing how excited they were. It's so heartwarming. Yeah, fix this there, because the defense won the game. Yeah, And I made I made this point to you earlier when we were talking about this, and I was like, I know that all they're all the feel good stories about all the guys you want to point out, but it's it's there's it's a clear answer.

In my opinion, Michael Parsons was the best player on the field last night for either team. In my opinion, I think he played a phenomenal game. What he was

asked to do, he did it very very well. And there were so many moments, like just so many moments when he made plays that were not average, when he made extraordinary plays, and they'll always show up in the stat sheet the same way as they do when you're getting a sack or when you're getting an interception, because tackle for a lass sometimes you have to look up and you're like you have to look later and be like, man, they had that many tackles for a loss. But those

things matter. Getting teams all schedule them behind the chains like that matters. And he was making all those kind of plays last night, So for me, it was him. I will also say I get a got to give an honorable mention of Cedric Wilson because when you think about it, this offense was not moving, They were not moving the ball and then all of a sudden, bam, seventy three yard touchdown. That was just a beautifully run route,

beautiful pass. Everything about it was perfect. That's what kind of got and not to me, that was the signal that this offense made a decision that Kellen Moore made the decision, Okay, we're not getting anything done. We're gonna to take some shots and really go at them with the passing game. We can't just focus on the running game because they're gonna do everything they can to stop us there. And not only that, but then he comes

back later and throws a big time pass on the run. Nick, you and I were talking about in the press back before, were like, we need that kind of thing. But yeah, I think Cedric Wills and had a phenomenal game as well well. If you ever need another batchup to the throw that ball on a damn rope on the run like that was. That was a throw. Yeah, he's four for four in his career and he's I mean he's thrown four passes, I think one touchdown. He's got a

perfect quarterback rating again for his career. I mean, he's he's out. He's been outstanding. I mean I said this this morning and I and this is no disrespect to Michael Gallup. If this is gonna be your number two receiver, Gallup I think is a better option for you. But as a number three, I think Cedric Wilson is showing he's got more versatility there. And again, come on back, Michael, let's make this muddy it up. Let's let's figure it out. But because you know, you know you're gonna need it.

But I think his value as a third guy is probably even more than what I think Gallup could give you. And something not to miss on that play as well, That play was blown up from the beginning when when he first got the ball that was a defender in his face, he made a move on that fender and takes off running the other way and then makes the throw on the run. Like everything about that play should not have worked. And Cedric Wilson made the play. This was not a play that was just there. He made

the play. Again, he had a really good game last night. And and if you look at like other guys we put on this list of great guy like we're talking about game changing plays that were made on guys we didn't even mention like obviously Gregory was playing out of his mind. Uh ceedee. Lamb was the one that had a lot of these catches. On the other end of these catches, Anthony Brown, we didn't get off his his ass. I'm sorry. Anthony Brown has been playing really really well.

He gives up some plays, he makes some with Jordan Lewis. They kept these guys in bound. Terrell Basham was all over the place. Zeke had a play of the game, even though his numbers weren't there. I mean should have been him, Yeah, I mean Cooper, it should have been he was. He mean, that's amiliar a guy that you're kind of like, it's not a one percent given that he's gonna A guy like him is gonna play the way he did. No, and I and I wonder when Dawrence came back, which was last game, and when d

law comes back, what his role is gonna be. You keep playing like that. And they got players, they got guys, and you know what, it's dan Quinn because the Seahawks they just put all these guys in there, and the Seahawks that that's what they did. It's a it's a dan Quinn type of defense. That's just finding getting these guys and finding ways to get to the quarterback. All.

I appreciate you guys, Jonas. We'll be back tomorrow. We're gonna go some big picture we look around the NFL, look around the NFC, look around the NFC East, see what's happening around the division and the conference. We'll do that tomorrow. Until then, for Nick Even, Dave helm and Amber Garcia. I am Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio Al Singleton. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club